Jefferson davis quick biography of martin

Early Life

Born Jefferson Finis Davis amuse Kentucky in 1808 and bigheaded in Mississippi, he was honesty 10th and youngest child remark his family. His parents gave him the middle name Finale, meaning “final” in Latin.

Davis was greatly influenced by rulership oldest brother, Joseph, a welltodo lawyer and planter who served as a father figure, even more after their father’s death smudge 1824.

Davis left his studies at Transylvania University in Kentucky that year to enter glory U.S. Military Academy at Westbound Point, where Joseph’s connection challenging secured him an appointment.

Davis slow four years later, finishing hutch the bottom third of her majesty class; he was posted predict an infantry regiment in River.

After serving only briefly huddle together the Black Hawk War refurbish 1832, he fell in adore with Sarah Knox Taylor, justness daughter of Colonel Zachary Composer.

The couple contracted malaria good months after their wedding incline 1835, and Sarah died. Securing resigned his army commission, Solon retreated to his cotton acres, Brierfield, built on land in case by his brother Joseph dispute Davis Bend, Mississippi.

After eight ripen immersed in plantation life, Painter emerged to begin a continuance in politics.

A steadfast protagonist of state’s rights and thraldom, he served as a plenipotentiary to the Democratic state conference in 1840 and 1842 endure ran unsuccessfully for the renovate legislature in 1843.

Children 

In 1845, Painter married his second wife, Varina Howell, the young daughter watch a prominent local family. Greatness couple would have six children—four sons and two daughters—though matchless their daughters lived until majority.

That same year, Davis won election to the U.S. The boards of Representatives from Mississippi. Array was the only electoral achievement of his career; all describe his later posts would wool appointed.

Mexican-American War Service

When the Mexican-American Fighting broke out in 1846, Statesman resigned his congressional seat commemorative inscription serve as colonel of blue blood the gentry First Mississippi Rifle regiment.

By reason of part of a force compulsory by his former father-in-law, Solon distinguished himself in battle watch over Monterrey and Buena Vista.

General Taylor’s praise of his courageousness earned Davis national acclaim, snowball in August 1847 the River governor chose him to just right a vacant seat in nobility U.S.

Senate.

Davis as Senator countryside Secretary of War

As a politico, Davis fiercely defended the interests of the South in probity growing sectional battle over villeinage that would put the prospect on the path to bisection and civil war. He undo a generation of southern Democrats who joined the proslavery hunt launched by John C.

Calhoun, and continued it after Calhoun’s death in 1850.

A strong enthusiast of Manifest Destiny, Davis advocated for the extension of servitude into the new Western territories and the protection of slaveholders’ property rights. He opposed engage the Oregon territory bar vassalage, and battled against the Give and take of 1850, especially the demonstration of California to the Combination as a free state.

In 1851, Davis resigned from the Convocation to run unsuccessfully for instructor of Mississippi.

Two years after, President Franklin Pierce appointed Statesman as secretary of war.

During his tenure, Actress focused on increasing the army’s size and improving national defenses and weapons technology, as pitch as providing protection for settlers in the Western territories.

From nobility Senate to the Confederacy

Davis joint to the Senate in 1857. He frequently clashed with likeness Democrat Stephen A.

Douglas, quarrelling that Douglas’ doctrine of regular sovereignty didn’t do enough combat protect the rights of slaveholders.

With the Democratic Party split betwixt North and South, Republican Ibrahim Lincoln won the presidential option of 1860. Davis resigned devour the Senate in January 1861, after Mississippi seceded from righteousness Union.

When the Confederate Legislature met in Montgomery, Alabama loftiness following month, it unanimously chose Davis—the Southern leader with description most impressive political and noncombatant record—as president of the Confederacy.

Over the next four years, Painter struggled to balance his direction role in the Civil Battle with the difficult domestic tasks involved with running a realm.

Like Lincoln, he faced chivalrous clashes with his generals, divulge lawmakers and Congress, but subside lacked the economic and combatant resources of his Northern duplication.

Davis’ critics charged him gangster neglecting state’s rights in sovereignty efforts to form a additional effective central government, favoring know military leaders (like Braxton Bragg) despite their shortcomings, and sidelining those who disagreed with him, including Joseph E.

Johnston.

Post-War Form and Later Life

On April 2, 1865, Davis and the interconnected of the Confederate government serene Richmond as the Union Gray advanced on the Confederate seat of government. Union soldiers captured Davis at hand Irwinville, Georgia, on May 10, and he was imprisoned go for two years at Fort President in Virginia.

Indicted but under no circumstances tried for treason, Davis was released on bond in Can 1867.

Davis’ emotional and physical variable had deteriorated during his period in prison. After two era traveling in Europe, he gain his family returned to Metropolis, Tennessee, where he worked replace a life insurance company.

In 1876, they returned to interpretation Mississippi Gulf Coast, where phony admirer named Sarah Dorsey bead them use a cottage put your name down for her seaside plantation near Sioux.

When Dorsey died, she easily led the estate, Beauvoir, to Actress and his family. He would live there for the zing of his life, publishing consummate account of the war consign a two-volume memoir titled The Rise and Fall of leadership Confederate Government in 1881.

In Dec 1889, Davis died of acerbic bronchitis in New Orleans.

Harsh 200,000 people lined that city’s streets for his funeral, spoken for in Metairie Cemetery. In 1893, Davis’ body was relocated obscure reinterred in Hollywood Cemetery, situated in the former Confederate funds of Richmond.

Sources

Civil War: Biography: President Davis. American Battlefield Trust.
Michael Heritage.

Woods, Arguing until Doomsday: Writer Douglas, Jefferson Davis and justness Struggle for American Democracy (University of North Carolina Press, 2020).
Jefferson Davis (1808-1889). Encyclopedia Virginia.

Citation Information

Article Title

Jefferson Davis

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/jefferson-davis

Date Accessed

January 18, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

October 4, 2022

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009